Prices for many vehicles in April at each the retail and auction level were down only barely from March. But they were down way more from February.
For instance, midyear 2022 Class 8 tractors sold at a median retail price in April of $95,365, in response to the report. That was 5.4% lower than in March, a decline of $5,379.
However the drop from February was way more pronounced. The worth that month for Class 8 used 2022 tractors sold at retail was $128,768. The April price reflects a decline of virtually 26% in two months.
J.D. Power said it didn’t release figures for sales of 2022 vehicles sold at auction “on account of very low volume of trucks sold, which resulted in swings within the averages that weren’t reflective of the market.”
Model yr 2021 vehicles sold at auction in April brought a median price of $50,173, J.D. Power said, which was just 0.7% higher than the March price. However the February price was $54,477, for a decline in only two months of seven.9%.
Other changes in April in comparison with March show a market that was mostly stable. For instance, prices for model yr 2020 vehicles sold at auction were 2% higher than in March, the auction price for 2019 vehicles was 1.7% lower, and the auction price for 2018 vehicles was down 10.2%.
Retail sales in April also showed a mixture of ups and downs. 2021 and 2020 model yr vehicles were each higher-priced than in March, 5.8% and 1.6%, respectively, while 2019 and 2018 retail prices were down from March, 0.6% and 0.9%, respectively.
But down the road, prices in April in comparison with February showed notable declines. At auction, Class 8 tractors from 2020 fell to $32,433 from $37,064. The decline for 2019 was to $26,749 from $31,117, and for 2018 it was to $19,301 from $24,791.
At retail, the comparison between April and February prices was $74,543 versus $77,939 for 2021 models, $55,868 versus $60,939 for 2020, and $43,524 versus $45,424 for 2019.
A few of those smaller declines can be more in step with normal depreciation, which J.D. Power this yr said has been averaging 2.3% per thirty days, in step with historical performance.
Because the commentary provided by J.D. Power within the report notes, prices even after recent declines remain elevated partly due to the way in which they soared throughout the pandemic.
“Late-model sleepers are bringing money comparable to the last strong pre-pandemic period of late 2018 in nominal dollars, or about 19% less when adjusted for inflation,” the report said. “Compared with the last weak pre-pandemic period, late-model sleeper values are actually running 30% higher in nominal dollars or 7% higher in real dollars.”
But markets are greater than prices. In its commentary, J.D. Power said, “April’s retail environment was unexpectedly weak, with sales per rooftop averaging a dismal 2.1 trucks.”
In an email to FreightWaves, J.D. Power Senior Analyst Chris Visser said that metric — sales per rooftop — is calculated by taking the “total variety of dealership rooftops (individual locations) reporting sales divided by total variety of sales reported.”
Visser added that the number generally averages about 5.0, “and we’ve been substantially below that post-pandemic.”
He also noted that the number is adjusted for outliers or sales for which J.D. Power is unable to acquire “critical items” reminiscent of mileage. “Most rooftops will move quite a bit more trucks in the actual world than our average shows, but our methodology has been consistent over time, so it’s a sound ongoing comparison,” Visser said.
So far as the April weakness, the report said that month “isn’t typically a weak month for
retail sales, so we might be entering the late-spring doldrums a bit of early.”
The general downward trend in lower prices is reflected on this chart. The numbers are a median of costs for 3-, 4- and 5-year-old used trucks with an aerodynamic body type.
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